25 February 2014

Linden Village

In commemoration of her sixth rezday, and now feeling the effects of age (time being what it is in Second Life, and her arrival on the grid having been prior to six years ago to begin with), Grandma Ziki gathers all the Young and Newborn Residents around her for storytime as she sits in her rocking chair.

"Now then, children," she begins, "today's story is about a place called Linden Village, and it's where many of us used to go to say hello to the Lindens." The children look up at her with doubt and furrowed brows, and one young boy blurts out, "That's not true! The Lindens are just a mythological creatures." "No, no," Grandma Ziki reassures them, "there really were Lindens who were there, and you could locate them by their blue dots on the map!"

"Blue dots?" asks one girl incredulously. "Oh yes," replies Grandma Ziki, "and Linden Village, you see, was built way back, years ago, for a special purpose. Here, let me read what the Lindens had to say: 'The Linden Office and Village is a project to create opportunities for Residents to communicate with Lindens in a creative and collaborative setting. We want to increase our approachability in a public way, have a central place where we can distribute inworld information, and have a nice place to hold public meetings or classes in Linden-designed areas. We are also using this as an opportunity to further support the efforts of the Live Helpers, Greeters, Liaisons, and all Lindens working to communicate with Residents.'" "But..." begins a boy before his voice trails off.

Well, OK, I'm sure the path was paved with the best of intentions. Nowadays, Linden Village stands as a relic—and, frankly, a rather sad-looking one at that—of an era when you really could see Lindens milling about and socializing with people. And many Lindens had homes there, too, as each was offered a parcel of land. The main landing point for the Village sets you down at the base of a temple constructed by Michael Linden in 2005. It was a lovely place with an art gallery and balloon rides (now forlorn and broken). A notecard one can obtain there, written by Pathfinder Linden, explains that the Village is the "surrounding area is where Lindens can build whatever they like, creating their own completely personalized spaces to meet with Residents. This space also gives us an opportunity to spend more time inworld as part of the community of Second Life, learning firsthand about issues that Residents deal with every day." Hmmm. Well, as I said, best intentions.

And what are all these images? Well, they're what are left of many Linden homes (but also some in use!). The earliest areas were around the sim Ambleside, but as need grew more plots were added in sims toward the north, stretching up in a column toward Cirano. In fairness, some Lindens do still use their plots—for example Baker Linden's land, fifth image here with the quaint farm and trees, is quite charming and current. But others, such as Dan Linden's plot (second image) are either littered with prims or more often empty. If you're the inquisitive type, you might want to grab your walking stick and head out on a trek of all these Linden lands, so I've created a quick list for you. Many plots are or were owned by Lindens who have now left the Lab. (And quite possibly I may have missed a few locations—and they do change once in a while, as in the past year some plots have actually been cleared. And I'm not poking around the sky, either.) The majority of lands in Linden Village remain unclaimed.

Where, you might ask, is Philip Linden? He has a forest, Philip's Forest (lowest image), the description of which says, "Come and find me here." If your browser permits, cam underground, where you'll spot his old meeting place, now for some reason hidden away: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Waterhead/225/15/33

There are things other than Linden homes around Linden Village, and some of those are well worth a visit. At Kirkby, you can visit the Second Life Wall of History, created for SL's second anniversary. At Waterhead, learn about Real Life Education in Second Life, or what it used to be, at least. You can visit the Second Life Planetarium, which quite astonishingly suggests you make a contribution to Governor Linden to help support it, and above the Planetarium investigate early tutorials for learning how to change your appearance, chat, grab and move things. In Beaumont is Jeremy Linden's Community Tools User Discussion Space where I remember attending meetings. Other historic sites include Pooley Stage in the sim Pooley, and other locations in nearby Brampton and Borrowdale.

10 comments:

You missed Michael Linden's recreation of the Hotel Adriano from Porco Rosso, sitting in the Jeogeot Gulf in the Shamon Region. He held his office hours there, back in the day, and I vaguely recall a troupe of Riverdancing Moles at the end of the last ever Office Hour.

I remember going to a massive party, Roman themed if memory serves, at the Linden village - it was held by the Lindens for sim owners. There were silly games, a treasure hunt and lag...SO.MUCH.LAG! But it was fun and a great chance to chat with Lindens. Of course, I remember when Lindens socialised on the grid, turning up at events and club, just to hang out and have fun. I think this means I am old as dirt even virtually.

I suggested I do an article "The Lindens and their homes" a while back (and had an enthusiastic response from Baker Linden, who was at that time tunnelling furiously under the mesh topping his land - and a chicken in a hard hard with a shovel is a sight to see!). Sadly, my little brain only being able to hold so much, I forgot the idea entirely.

Another place which is nicely done is Maestro's place over on Aditi, which he's redressed as a materials-enabled 80s disco (although this may change in the future, he redresses once or twice a year). I have an image of it here.